Ive been reading through old posts on calf strength for sprinting.
What would be the affect of having significantly weak calves?
Would this put more stress on the hips and cause a drop in hip height?
Thanks
It’s the other way around. When your hips are weak your gastroc will take more force. Due to striking further in front of your COM.
Ok, that makes sense.
I think thats the problem im having. Looks like my heels being forced in to the floor.
So you reckon this would be lack of force from the hips rather than anything to do with my calves?
Thanks for your response
Definitely, think of a golf swing. The speed of the golf club head depends on whats happening higher up. Its the same principle with the legs, if you feel flat footed the cause is usually coming from the hips.
In saying this, do your calves have to be strong enough to handle this force coming from your hips?
Thanks again for the response- im starting to understand now
The entire leg & body needs to strong to handle the forces on ground contact. If you’re hips are coming through properly & you’re collapsing on ground contact. There may be a weakness. However the lower limb is usually very strong & when the hips are firing you’re going to land without as much breaking.
Try a simple to test to determine if you have gastroc/soleus weakness. Do 20x3 single leg calf raises on a block. If you’re getting fatigued towards towards the later reps or if you can’t get full extension. Than there may be a deficiency.
Just tried it. Got to 20 in first set, just. Only got to 15 on second and 11 on third. What do you think?
I used to do sets of 100 when I ran 11.7h…that’s what I think. I also think I’m a slow twitch machine.
i could only do 8 what do you think also my calves are only 12in that could be a problem?
All the physio’s in my country that i’ve had think ‘elite’ athletes should be able to do 50+ in a set to failure.
Just putting it out there. I neither agree entirely nor disagree entirely with them here.
I devised this test 3x20 to assess my achillies. If I had no problems completing them then I knew I was ready to absorb full forces on the track.
You might be running relatively flat footed & therefore your calves are not getting stimulated to get stronger. Elite sprinters should have no problems with this routine because their calves get a lot of work through track work. Maybe start doing 3x15 twice a week. Make sure you stretch and massage your calves.
8 reps only?
If that is the case then how could you keep on the ball of your foot for 46-49 strides? I am not a huge fan of single leg calf work however if there is a serious deficiency then that needs to be addressed.
Strong calves are useless if the power is not generated higher up the chain. If the hips & knee joint don’t generate power then strong calves won’t have much effect on speed.